Autumn Birdsong

I came and sat outside this morning. I had no intention of doing anything specific, I just wanted to 'be'.

The clouds moved overhead turning the blue sky grey but the sunlight was still here with me and hundreds of starlings flocked around in their swarm like movement up above, swirling and dipping as they do. They took purchase in a tree not far from me and within seconds one started to sing, then another, then another and before long the whole colony had become a cacophony of autumn bird song filling the air with myriad tones ; a chaotic chorus.

And it was BEAUTIFUL

It filled me with a sense of warmth and coloured the sky even with the clouds packing in preparing to douse and drench us all with life giving rain in a downpour. The one thing I love about this area is that it is almost always green, always growing and this little rendevous with the birds today has been a good reminder that I am still growing, just like all of these green things around me. Yes, there's rain and sometimes the sky is grey, but there's always sunshine interspersed between that and both are necessary to have the growth and the movement - the silence and the birdsong.

It has felt invigorating to have the birds here sharing their melodies and just doing their thing immaterial of my presence or that of the imminent rain. They don't seem to worry about getting drenched, they soak up the sun when it's out and take shelter when it cold or wet. They take these as they are and simply move through them without worrying about when they'll next be able to congregate in the tree tops to bellow out their aubade to the intermittant sun.

Their song dwindles when they get disturbed and take flight but a few still continue the song as if to keep it going and then they take rest again, a million little black specs filling the boughs.

Then just as quickly as they had arrived, they moved off, leaving me silently sitting, smiling, feeling full of autumn song and GRATEFUL. The clouds decided to follow suit and now the sky is azure blue and the bright sunlight is here again.